Wire-reel.



c. s. REUTTER.

WIRE REEL.

APPLICATION FILED IAN.8, I916.

Patented Dec. 26,1916.-

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C. G. REUTTER.

WIRE REEL.

lwuuwco a C G. REUTTER.

Patented Dec. 26, 1916.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2 RPPLICATlON FILED JAN 8 1916 elf topaz IT SA CHRISTIAN G. REUT'IER,

OF LIBERTY, MISSOURI.

' Winn-REEL.

Application filed January 8,

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I. CHRISTIAN G. Rnn'r'rnn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Liberty, in the county of Clay and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in ire-Reels, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying draw- 1ngs.

My invention relates to reels for reeling wire such as telephone, telegraph or power transmission wire, and the general object of the invention is the provision of a reel so constructed that it may be readily applied to a power driven wheel of an automobile and be rotated thereby to wind wire upon the reel.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a reel of the character described so constructed that it may be applied to a power driven wheel of an automobile, or may be otherwise supported if requisite and necessary so as to permit the wire to be unreeled.

Still another object is to so construct the reel that it is possible to wind the wire upon the reel in coils or bales of different diameters, or that coils or bales having different diameters may be disposed upon the reel in position to be unreeled therefrom.

A further object of my invention is the provision of a reel which shall be of very light yet rigid construction and from Which the wire mav be readily removed.

Still another object is the provision, in connection with the reel adapted to be applied to the wheel of an automobile, of a feeding device or guide constructed to guide the wire upon the reel and adaptedto be manually shifted laterally, that is, axially of the reel so as to cause the wire to wrap properly thereon.

A further object of my inventionis to provide in connection with the feeding device, means for automatically preventing the reverse movement of the wire from the reel, said means being adapted to hold the wire at any point or to. be entirely released to permit unreeling of the wire, said means also acting to prevent the wire from running too loosely onto the reel.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a face view of the reel showing Specification of Letters Patent.

PatentedDec. 26, 1916.

1916. Serial No. 71,022.

fragmentary elevation of the lower portion I of the feeding device and controller looking at the opposite side from that shown in Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a fragmentary section of a pole with means thereon for supporting the reel shown in Figs. 2 and 4; Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the frame for supporting the reel upon the pole.

Referring now particularly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, it will be seen that the frame of my reel comprises an outer annular member 10 and an inner annular member 11. Attached to the inner face of the member 10 and extending inwardly therefrom are a plurality of metallic strips 12 or bars, which strips or bars are angularly bent at their junction with the annular member 11 and outwardly and centrally inclined as at 13. At their outer extremities these strips or bars 12 are again angularly bent as at 14: inward toward the axial center of the reel and are there attached to an end plate 14?, as shown most clearly in Fig. 1. This end plate may have any suitable form but is shown as square. In the illustration siX strips or bars 12 are illustrated but it is ob vious that any suitable number may be used. The annular members 10 and 11 are riveted or otherwiseattache'd to the strips 12 and these strips in turn are riveted or otherwise attached to the plate 1 1 A plurality of braces 15 bear against the portions'14 of the strips as most clearly illustrated in Fig. 1,

these braces 15 being illustrated as two in number disposed diametrically opposite to each other extending tangentially to the axis of the reel. These strips 15 may or may not be rigidly attached to the strips 12. Ex-

tending across the ring or annulus 11 are the bracing members 16 which are riveted or otherwise attached to the ring. These bracing members 16 are disposed in parallel rela tion and through the braces 15 and 16 pass theextension bolts 18 used for holding the reel upon an automobile wheel designated 1, extends across fromone brace 16 to the other and intersects the axis of the reel, which plate when the reel is applied to an automobile wheel as illustrated in Fig 2, is removed to accommodate the hub of the wheel. The bolts 18 at their rear ends pass through between the spokes of the wheel A and through abar 20 disposed on theinner face of the wheel and against the spokes; By this'means the reel is held in firm engagement withthe wheel A and will rotate with this wheel.

Two of the strips 13, which strips are diametrically opposite each other, are formed with lugs 21 perforated for the passage of a rod 22 which rod as illustrated in Fig. 1 projects beyond the face 13 of the strips 12 and acts as a detachable means for holding the coil of wire upon the reel. This rod 22 is held in place by means of a spring 23 which operatively engages the rod and acts as a latch. hen this spring 23 is released from its ngagement with the rod 22 the rod may be withdrawn to permit the withdrawal of coil of wire.

It is to be noted that the relatively square plate 14 is perforated at 24 and that the plate 19 is also perforated. This is to per? mit passage of a bolt 25 (see Fig. 4) through the center of the reel in order to support the reel upon a base 26 so that the reel may be used to pay 0E wire carried upon the reel. In this case the bolt 25 extends out beyond the plate 14 and carries nuts 27 at one end, there being a coiled spring 28 disposed between said nuts and the plate 14,

which spring acts to frictionally engage the plate 14 and resist too great freedom of rotation of the reel. The base 23 may be of any suitable character, may be a. part of an automobile or other suitable supporting member. In order to permit the reel to have free rotation, a washer 29 is disposed.b,e'-, tween the base of the reel and the supporting member 26 thus supporting the'reel above the supporting member.

In order to guide and distribute the wire upon the reel, I also provide what I term a feeder which may be shifted in a plafne parallel to the axis of the reelso as-to distribute the wi1' "e= properly thereon. This feeder is preferably adapted to be attached to; the foot board B. of the automobile, and toy this end I provide asa support for the feed device an angle. iron 30 which is bolted or otherwise attached to the foot board at one or a plurality of: points and to which is pivoted the lower portion ofa lever designated generally 31, The lever is: composed oftwo sections 3 and 33, the. s ction be ng elativelyv wide; and extending; from; a point above he; Pivot belt of: the lever downward tea pointbelowi the; lower end of the section 32. The upper section is bolted to the lower section at a plurality of points, one of these bolts being designated 3.4 and also passes through the angle iron 30 and from the pivotalsupport for the lever. This bolt is relatively long and surrounding the bolt a coiled compression spring which bears against the nuts 36 on the bolt 14 and also against the inner face of the angle iron 30 thus exerting sufiicient friction as to resist too easy oscillation of the lever and act to hold the lever in any position in which i may be placed.

The lower section 33 has mounted upon it the tubular guide 37 the outer end of which is outwardly flared as at 38, This guide extends through the plate 33 and mounted upon that face of the section 33 toward the reel is a wire holder. This consists of a plate 39 pivotally mounted upon the section 33 for movement toward or from the section and notched at 40; This plate is pivoted betweenears 41 and at its extremity is connected bymeans of a coiled spring 42 with an adjusting rod 43 which extends up parallel to the lever 32 and is supported in guides 44 mounted upon this lever. The member 43, as illustrated in F 5 is formed with a plurality of notches 46 which may be engaged with one, or the other of theguides 44, and thusthe tension of the spring 42 increased or decreased. The apex of the notch 40, when the plate 39 is drawn into a nearly P ra pos ti n o he e io 335-1 igh y beyond or out of register with the bore-ofthe guide 37 and as a consequence this V shaped notch engages the wireand retards itspassage. Any backward movement. of the wire, if the devicebe reeling up, will automatically act by reason of the friction be tween the wireand' the plate 39, to shift the plate 39 into a greater parallelism tothe section 33 and thus into greater frictional engagement with the wire, 7 This frictional engagement can be; increased or decreased by regulating the tension of the spring Thusit may be so great as to hold the wire taut between the reel and the, guide37.

My irnprove d reel is not only adapted for use in cpnnectionv with an automobile for winding up wire, but may be also used as a paying-out. reel mounting it either as illustratedin Fig. 4 or as illustrated in Figs.

7. 8. In these'last, named figures, 47

designates a pole which may be carried by an operator. The reel is supported upon this pole byproviding a base of the form illustratedin Fig. 8 and comprising the vmembers 49; and a crosspiece50. Hook-shaped bolts 52 pass through theuends ofthe memb 0 1 thr l shth m se d. e gage chains extending beneath the T-shaped head4 8 the chains being designated 53. A central bolt 25 which is the same bolt as 2.5. .1 St ?ete i; is- 4, x e pwa through the member some is adapted to support the reel in the same manner as the reel is supported in Fig. 4.

It is to be understood that the reel as illustrated in Fig. 2 is adapted to be applied to one of the power wheels of the automobile. If the rear end of the automobile be lifted by means of a jack, for instance, this rear wheel may be driven at any desired speed by means of the automobile engine and this will drive the reel. The wire may thus be pulled through the feeder or guide and wound upon the reel by power, the feeder being shifted back and forth by hand to thereby properly distribute the wire evenly over the reel. The feeder is preferably bolted on the foot board convenient to the drivers seat so that the driver of the automobile can shift the feeder. With this reel applied to the power wheel of an automobile it is possible to draw half a mile of wire onto the reel in five minutes time, whereas with the hand reel it takes at least two hours to reel up half a mile of wire. This reel will reel one-half mile or more of wire in one coil or bale as easily as 200 feet can be coiled upon the old style reel. Furthermore, with the old style reel the wire has to be cut into lengths not more than a quarter of a mile long in order to permit it to be readily handled. In practice it has been found that this reel requires only 10 minutes in which to wind up a mile of wire. The reel is made entirely of metal, is welded, bolted or riveted together, and it is both light and strong. While it is primarily a power driven wheel, when it is to be used for winding up wire it may be also operated by hand. It will be seen that the spring 28, where the reel is being used as a paying out reel, exerts enough friction upon the reel as to resist paying out too fast and at the same time resistance to the rotation of the reel is provided by the spring 35 in Fig. 5.

It will be obvious that while I have illustrated what I regard as one of the best forms of my invention, I do not wish to be limited thereto as various changes may be made in the details of construction and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

1. The combination with a wire reel, of a wire guide therefor comprising a lever pivoted for oscillation parallel to the axis of the reel and perforated for the passage of a wire, and a spring actuated tensioning member mounted upon said lever and bearing against the wire.

2.1 The combination with a wire reel, of a wire guide therefor comprising a lever pivoted for oscillation parallel to the axis of the reel and perforated for the passage of a wire, a spring actuated member mounted upon said lever and bearing against the wire, and means for increasing or decreasing the engagement of said member with the wire.

3. The combination with a wire reel, of a guide comprising a lever pivoted for oscillation parallel to the axis of the reel and having a guide member mounted thereon formed with a central bore through which the wire passes, a plate hingedly mounted upon the lower end of the lever for movement parallel to the wire passing through the guide, said plate having a notch engaging with the wire, the distance between the hinged end of the plate and the apex of the notch being greater than the distance between the hinged end of the plate and the bore, and a spring urging the plate into parallel relation to the lower end of the lever.

4. The combination with a wire reel, of a guide comprising a lever pivoted for oscillation parallel to the axis of the reel and having a guide member mounted thereon formed with a central bore through which the wire passes, a plate hingedly mounted upon the lower end of the lever for movement parallel to the wire passing through the guide, said plate having a notch engaging with the wire, the distance between thehinged end of the plate and the apex of the notch being greater than the distance between the hinged end of the plate and the bore, a spring urging the plate into parallel relation to the lower end of the lever, and manually operable means for increasing or decreasing the tension of the spring.

5. The combination with a wire reel, of a wire guide and controller therefor comprising a support, a lever pivoted thereon for oscillation parallel to the axis of the reel, said lever having a tubular guiding member at its lower end, a bolt forming the pivotal axis for the lever and passing through the support and lever, and a spring engaging the bolt and bearing against the support and resisting the oscillation of the lever.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aiiix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

CHRISTIAN G. REUTTER.

Witnesses:

JOHN M. NEWLEE, SELDON H. MURRAY.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

